What Jackie Kennedy's Wedding Dress Has to Do With the New National Museum of African American History and Culture
The new National Museum of African American History and Culture opened in Washington D.C. last month, an institution designed to educate its visitors and memorialize the stories of African Americans throughout our country's history.
The 400,000 square-foot building is filled with more than 36,000 artifacts, including everything from the Harriet Tubman's shawl to Carlotta Walls's first-day-of-school outfit to Carl Lewis's gold medal. But one exhibit in particular caught our attention: "Pretty in Pink," a collection of gowns by Ann Lowe.
Perhaps best-known for creating Jackie Kennedy's wedding gown (as well as the gowns of her bridal attendants), Lowe was a designer during the 1950s and '60s who made dresses for New York's "leading social families." Out of her shop in New York, she catered to the Auchinclosses, DuPonts, Kennedys, Posts, Rockefellers, and Roosevelts, fashioning formalwear with intricate beadwork, detailing, and handmade silk flowers.
"I love my clothes and am particular about who wears them," Lowe told Ebony magazine in 1966magazine in 1966. "I am not interested in sewing for cafe society of social climbers. I do not cater to Mary and Sue. I sew for families of the Social Register."
The museum features several of her gowns, and tells Lowe's journey from Jim Crow-era Alabama to Lexington Avenue.
For more on Lowe, head over to Racked.com, or see the exhibit first-hand at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in D.C.
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